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A Twisted Ankle

Yesterday was a rough day. My son fell at the park and sprained his ankle. He was a mess, and truthfully so was I. I felt so bad, and as you know, there's nothing worse than seeing your own child in a lot of pain.

Clearly he could not walk so, I had to carry him piggy back style to the car. The only problem was that the car was parked a few blocks away. With Los Angeles being the big city that it is, parking was rough.

As I trudged the trek to our car, I realized one thing. Thank goodness I am in shape and healthy enough to walk with my 40 pound son on my back! It wasn't easy, but I did it.

Health is such an important part of being a parent. If you're not taking care of yourself, how can you take care of others. I'm gonna think about this the next time I want to skip out on the gym.

Moms, what kind of situations have you been in where you thought you would never make it through but did?

Being the mom of 2 boys and 3 girls who thankfully and actually to my amazement (after all we have been thru) made it to adulthood and are on their own now... and some had special needs... we went thru a long list of serious situations I didn't know how I'd make it thru but did... the worse ones, naturally were literal life and death situations where me and the hospital weren't sure if they would even live! To my shock.. (especially since i am a very very sensitive and emotional person and my kids and husband are my LIFE and my everything).... somehow I was overcome with the ability to be strong in the worst moments of those times and just ask the drs and nurses what I could do if anything to help and to comfort my child and my loved ones and stay calm and take control.. then later on in moments of quiet and waiting all alone that is when I would burst into heavy uncontrollable sobbing but as soon as it was time to rise to the occasion again I would get myself together and get back on the front lines.

The other extremely difficult things I went thru with my 4 bio kids was the 2 yrs after I divorced my ex h - their bio dad and I had sole custody of them and I had to stop being a ft sahm mom that they were use to and go to work ft to support us but I was only making $7 an hour and I didn't get ANY child support at all until after the 1st 2 yrs and my kids had speical needs and to say we were extremely poor is an understatement... I tried my best but it was not uncommon for us to go for weeks at a time with no heat in Michigan winters and I had to tuck kids into bed with with layers of clothes on and their winter coats, hats, mittens and if we had running water at that time I would fill up 2 litter bottles and gallon jugs with hot water for them to take to bed with them.. it would get so cold in the house their poor fish died.

Also we would sometimes have to go for weeks at any time of year including hottest most humid part of summer with no electricity or running water... our neighbor would allow me to fill up buckets of water from their hose I had to carry to dump in tub to hand wash clothes for all 5 of us and then hang them up either in backyard in summer or in basement in winter and used buckets of water from their hose to flush the toilet a couple times a day or to sponge bathe.

I had no car so we had to walk long distances and they had to help me carry groceries each week all that way in all kinds of weather too.

We use to light candles I got from $1 store in fireplace for light at night and I'd play battery operated radio for us and we'd play board games on floor in candlelight and I'd read them stories by candlelight.. then I had a notebook and every night I made each of them and me think of 5 things we were grateful for that day even if it was such a hard day that we could only think of the most basic stuff like having one another and having a roof over our head etc. We would talk about how we were a TEAM and we could get thru anything if we stuck together.

We went thru that for 2 yrs and then our life became happy and wonderful beyond all our wildest dreams thanks to my husband Todd. My kids are all adults on their own now and they told me they are GLAD they went thru those times with me because A. they saw how entitled so many of their friends are and our kids were never entitled and always acted grateful and they KNOW they difference between wants and needs. B. they developed a strong social consciousness for others and big hearts and huge compassion and all of them do things for total strangers in need and homeless people on the streets and so much more. C. they said it helps them now as adults too because they know when they go thru something difficult that they had been thru many very difficiult things before and that they got thru it and they can get thru anything.. they said it is sad how many of their friends act like the world is coming to an end over even very small difficulities.

A few years back my youngest fell at the park and gashed her head. I sent the kids ahead, one with the stroller the other to get my husban.d I decided to walk home to carrring her with the shorts she was wearing on her head to help control the bleeding. Got my husband out of the shower and he dressed and called work really quick(he was getting ready to leave for work) while I held my daughter and then we ran her to the hospital ER up the road. I did not put her down more than a few seconds until we got in to the ER. Even in the car I had her on my lap for the 5 blocks to the hospital

Hope your son feels better...I'm out of shape but have always been able to carry my little ones if the need arose...(huffing and puffing but I carry them) I can't think of any situations at the moment...

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